


Good Day

by CapitolOfStalking



Series: The Pond Life [1]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Human, Space Wives, the cat hates her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 20:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18080330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CapitolOfStalking/pseuds/CapitolOfStalking
Summary: Joan Smith has been dating Melody Pond for quite some time. They even moved into their own house together, but there's one important step they missed. Joan hasn't met her parents yet. On Melody's birthday, everything goes wrong, except for a single thing. || HUMAN AU





	Good Day

‘How many things could possibly go wrong in the span of three hours?’ Joan Smith asked herself, as she took a few steps into the kitchen. This way was just the worst day she experienced in forever. It was her girlfriend’s birthday and she was supposed to meet her parents for the first time. She was freaking out on the inside, while she tried to remain calm on the outside. It wasn’t exactly working. When she left the kitchen, just ten minutes ago, it’d been perfectly clean. Plates were neatly placed in the cupboard, mugs stored in a different one. She had done her best, cleaning up after she put the cake into the oven. Now that she returned from the bathroom, the kitchen was a hot mess. One of the wine bottles was knocked over, red paw prints stained the carpet, and Joan just let herself sink against the door. They had just moved into the little cottage and her girlfriend brought both things into the household: The carpet and the cat. She wasn’t sure what she was more afraid of: Her girlfriend’s reaction or her family’s reaction. 

“No, no, no!” She said as she wandered through the apartment. All she had to do was follow the trail of paws, right? Find the cat, clean the mess up and put on the nice dress she bought. Okay, she could do that. “Here, kitty cat! Come here, Cantica, you need a bath!” Joan called, but of course, the cat ignored her. It took her quite some time, until she found her, sitting in the middle of their bed. The baby blue sheets, ruined and her new dress, spoiled. The Bengal cat was licking her paws clean, the wine staining her mouth. The cat looked up, when she approached, hissed and jumped straight off the bed. 

Joan groaned. The clock told her, she had another twenty minutes, before Melody would come back home, forty, before her parents would arrive. Leaving the dress on the bed, she reached into the closet and just pulled the most generic black jeans and a pullover out. Melody told her to keep it casual, but this scared her. “You are such a bad Kitty, you know that?” She asked and the cat just purred in confirmation. Getting dressed took her another minute and cleaning the stains on the floor another fifteen. That’s when she smelled it. There was the scent of something burnt in the air and she just ran. 

In the oven was something, supposed to be a cake, looking like a piece of coal. The cat jumped up on the stove, her green eyes watching her carefully. It was like the cat was judging her, while she complained and threw the cake into the garbage bin. Another few minutes, until Melody would come home. On her Birthday, she wouldn’t have a cake because of her stupidity! A part of her blamed the cat. She was sure that Cantica was pure evil. 

JOAN [3:35pm]: “Can you please stop and buy some cake? The cat and I burned the one we tried to make.”  
MELODY [3:36pm] “You can’t blame everything on the cat, Sweetie. I’ll be late anyway. I’m coming home right away.”

It was alright, though. Joan sighed. Twenty minutes until they were supposed to arrive and she was growing more and more anxious, sweating, because of the horrible temperature in the room. She grabbed the cat and closed the door behind her. Now that the bloody kitchen was wiped clean and smelled like hell, she didn’t want to lock her in. Not even Cantica deserved that. 

The dining room looked good, though. Balloons were tied to the chairs, there were biscuits and custard in separate bowls and some wrapped presents. Melody loved presents. And pleasant surprises. And a good party. Her goal today was giving her both. So far it wasn’t working very well. It was so quiet. Everything looked about done, except for her hair. She was wearing some makeup, which she never did. A bit of eyeshadow and mascara, framing her eyes, lips looked so much fuller with the red-ish lipstick she stole from her girlfriend and the sad attempt to cover the shadows under her eyes. Her hair was a mess though. She looked tired and overworked when she heard the doorbell. Joan jumped up and knocked the chair over in excitement. Surely, Melody forgot her keys at work again. With a big swing, she opened the door and just started speaking.

“God, I’m so glad you’re here, your cat is trying to murder- oh.” She stared into the amused faces of a couple that looked like they were only a few years older than them. She recognized them from a few pictures though. And that’s when she understood she was looking at Amelia and Rory Pond. Mr. Pond was carrying presents, wrapped far more nicely than her own, a cake on top of it, looking better than anything she could have ever made. “Hello, uh...I’m Joan and this is embarrassing. Please, come in. Can I help you carry that in, Sir?” Her voice was high pitched and she talked so quickly that she had problems following her own words. But they did follow her inside and the ginger woman even closed the door. Her husband carried the dining room as if he had done it a million times before and left the women alone. 

“I’m Amy. If you call me Mrs. Pond, I might just need to hurt you.” Mrs. Pond said, amusement more than obvious. “And that’s Rory. He’s not really as scary as he tries to be. Too dorky.” She was pretty, smiling like she had done this a million times before. She really tried to not make it awkward, but unfortunately, Joan was an expert in that area. “Yeah, you seem far scarier. Wait, no. That sounded wrong!” But still, Amy smiled kindly. “I know. It’s the Scottish blood. I mean, Melody is almost as scary as I am and that makes me a proud mother. Speaking of Melody, is she trying to be fashionably late again?” Joan shrugged, a smile forming on her lips when Rory spoke up. “I always tried to tell her it’s rude, but since you do the same, it was hard to teach her otherwise.” Amy rolled her eyes. She didn’t even try to hide it. Joan was in awe. They were just perfect for each other. He was leaning in the doorframe. “Why was there a chair on the floor, though? That’s a story I would like to hear.” He looked at his wife and she just shrugged. “Didn’t you listen? She said that the cat wanted to kill her. I think she got her from Mels. I’m pretty sure she had an influence on that cat. I don’t doubt her story.”

Mels was the ominous aunt that led to Melody receiving her name. When Joan wanted to invite her over, she had been told that Mels was currently on the run for stealing a helicopter. They had no idea why she was able to fly it, or why she did it, but she sounded like the coolest person ever and Joan couldn’t wait to meet her someday. It would certainly be an interesting day. Behind them, the door was opened and a woman with messy hair strutted in. It wasn’t messy in a bad way. Untameable golden curls, the very best kind, which perfected the look of the angel-like woman. From the outside, she looked so perfect, that going out with her was a pain in the ass. People just couldn’t stop staring. She was carrying quite a few bags and flowers in them.  
“Hello, Sweetie. Mother, Father...I see you’re early!” Melody purred, as she hugged her parents and put the bags down. They wished her a happy birthday and looked at her in the way not every parent looked at their child. With unconditional pride. Cantica, who had been watching from a corner, just jumped up on her shoulder. The cat seemed perfectly fine, but Joan couldn’t help but frown when she noticed the pink snout. Right. She forgot about /that./  
“No, Melody. You’re just late.” Rory sighed. He almost turned away when his daughter kissed her girlfriend. He was still getting used to that. Melody didn’t ever introduce them to her girlfriends and boyfriends and a part of him didn’t doubt that this was her first real relationship. The first one she kept around. He never understood her fear of commitment and somehow even blamed her Godmother, Mels, who probably had the worst influence possible on her. But Mels was his best friend since they were children and she deserved to have a place in his daughter’s life. He rolled his eyes, when he watched her purse her lips. He didn’t like to watch his baby girl frown, but when he spotted the reason, he started to believe the other woman’s story. 

“Sweetie, please tell me those aren’t red wine stains on my white carpet. Tell me you didn’t let the cat do that.”

Joan flinched and looked down, rather embarrassed. “Those aren’t red wine stains, honey. I didn’t let the cat do it?”

“Nice try,” Rory commented, as he watched his daughter grab her bags and take them to the dining room. “Right then. We’ll talk about that later. I can smell my mother’s wonderful apple pie!” Her father followed and Amy just shrugged. “I don’t know, I think she took that very well.”

~*~

They had been eating in silence. The only noise was coming from the radio. After they finished drinking tea and got the alcohol out, Amy started to break the silence. “So, birthday girl...How did the two of you meet?” She asked and Joan blushed. Melody sipped her wine (her fourth glass of wine) and hid her smile. They all saw it anyway. “We met at the library. She was a substitute Professor at my University and everyone just talked about how amazing her lectures were, so I snuck in and listened. They only call her ‘The Doctor’. I approached her afterward and asked her what kind of Doctor she was.” The eyes of her parents were glued on Joan now. “I have quite a few Doctor titles...Physics, Chemistry...Math...I could go on for hours, really, but she taught me that I should just shut up at that point!” Joan smiled widely and glanced over at Melody who looked rather amused, as she emptied yet another glass. 

“How about you open your presents? This one is from me, that one from your mother and the big one is from Mels.” Rory smiled and handed the packages she’d seen earlier over. Joan took the glass from her wife and took a sip out of it. It wasn’t exactly her favorite beverage, but she wanted to seem classy before she placed it on the table. Melody ripped the paper off and threw it on the ground, the cat hunting it down. She got the nicest things. Her father got her a book full of fairytales with the best illustrations, her mother got her some high-heels and a nice dress and her Godmother got her a huge archeology kit. Joan didn’t get half of the terms Melody used to describe it. But when the time came when Joan had to hand a present over, she felt stupid. She reached for a little flat package. The blonde was shifting in her seat, more than uneasy. The wrapping paper was dark blue, with a golden bow. The Ponds shared a glance, as she opened the packaging carefully. She revealed a blue diary with many empty pages and everyone just went silent. Melody looked up at her. “Why did you give me a diary?” She asked and Joan just shrugged. Her posture was rather stiff. This was worse than anything she ever imagined. Rory opened his mouth several times, but Joan could feel the disappointment and confusion. “Because I think there are some things I want you to remember, even a thousand years from now.” Her voice was hushed, but her girlfriend just smiled, as she took her hand. “You’re right. There are some things I just don’t want to forget. It’s my favorite color. How did you know that?” Her voice was honest and Joan almost laughed when she saw the Ponds. They held their breath, obviously scared that their daughter would pick a fight now. But she didn’t. She just kissed Joan and made the announcement she would prove her /how/ much she liked it later. In private. Her father choked. Her mother laughed.

~*~

The evening continued and by the time dinner rolled around, Melody was sipping her final glass of wine, as they waited for the restaurant to deliver the food they had ordered. They were sitting on the round table in the kitchen, laughing and having a good time when Melody opened the diary. 

“Maybe we should write that on the first page? I think this was a memorable day.” She announced before she looked down at the page. The first page wasn’t blank. She recognized the handwriting. 

“All of time and space, where do you want to start? Maybe at our wedding?” Joan said. She knew exactly what she wrote there. FInding the right words had been her personal hell.  
Melody just dropped the glass of wine, the rest of the alcohol forming a puddle. She reached for the ring that had been taped to the book.

“You sentimental idiot. I wanna start right here and right now.” Melody closed the book carefully before she just reached out to her. “Just you and me, time and space.” She said between a few kisses. Amy cheered, once they broke apart and threw herself into the women’s arms. She just couldn’t stop using the word ‘congratulations’, while her husband was crying. Melody Pond would always be his little girl and there was no way an engagement would change that. He knew that she was loved and he knew that there was a time to let her go and be an adult. Maybe that time was now.

By the time they calmed down, Melody was almost sitting on Joan’s lap. Her parents were telling stories of their own wedding and how their friend John had crashed it. Amy smiled, as she reached for Rory’s hand. 

“There’s only one thing we need to discuss before we can fully support that wedding, Joan,” Amy said and Melody furrowed her brows. “What’s that?”

“No way in hell are you taking her last name.”

‘Yeah,’ Joan thought, as she pressed a kiss to Melody’s temple. ‘This day wasn’t so bad after all.’

 

|| XOXO ||

**Author's Note:**

> A//N: So, here we go again. It’s the Birthday of both, Alex Kingston and John Barrowman. I just can’t believe this woman is in her late fifties. When I remembered that, I just couldn’t help writing this out. I plan on making this a series, so stay tuned. You’re very welcome to leave some feedback, but keep in mind that I know this isn’t the best thing I’ve ever written, lmao. I hope you all had a great start into the week!


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